


Encounters

by Merilsell



Series: Lenyaverse: Sidestories [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Cats Are Evil, Childhood Friends, Dalish Elves, Dalish Origin, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Gen Work, Kid Fic, No Romance, Pre-Dragon Age: Origins, because, if you ask my warden, that is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-17 00:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14821953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merilsell/pseuds/Merilsell
Summary: "Cats were horrible animals, but the boy seemed to be nice."A small ficlet about how Mahariel and Tamlen became friends, and why Lenya dislikes cats. Kid Fic, Pre-Dragon Age Origins. A rewrite of a scene originally featured in "Of Elves And Humans" on FFN.





	Encounters

"Butterfly, Butterfly," a little girl with long blonde hair sung, and followed its fluttering path with her eyes, hopping up and down.

Suddenly the insect made a turn and flew deeper into the woods. She ran after it without a second thought, dry twigs cracking under her light steps. Eventually, the butterfly landed upon the hollow trunk of a tree, near a massive, green-leafed oak. Giggling, she inched a bit closer to observe it. Its delicate, yellow wings were beautiful.

The girl crouched down to quietly move closer to the trunk, in the same way a grown up hunter had shown her. Warmth bloomed within her chest when she'd managed to approach the butterfly without scaring it away. She reached her hand out to the insect, wanted to touch it, causing it to fly away. It drifted high up into the sky, passing the foliage of the trees until it was gone.

She pouted as her green eyes followed the insect on its way to the sky. Now she didn't have anyone to play with and Ashalle was still busy with boring, grown-up things she didn't understand. There, a rustling of branches! Her eyes darted in the direction of the noise, and startled upon what she saw. Two yellow eyes of a strange animal were staring directly at her. She knew a lot of animals but this creature was foreign to her.

With a mixture of curiosity and fear she slowly inched closer to observe it. The animal didn't back away, ignored her even. It wasn't large; it had black velvety fur, two little pointy ears and a tail. Oh exciting! Her heart beat quicker the closer she came to the animal. She knelt down next to it, tilted her head, and smiled into the eyes of the animal.

"Will you be my friend? You look nice."

She reached out to touch its soft fur, but before she could even touch it, the creature swiped its paw and scratched her across the cheek with its sharp claw. Hissing, it then turned and run away, into the thicket of the woods. Eyes wide, she fell backward on the leafed ground. Her right cheek burned like fire, and upon touching it, she noticed it was bleeding.

Tears welled into her eyes and ran down her face, which only made the deep scratch burn more. Hugging her knees, she started to sob bitterly. How stupid of her to run so deep into the woods on her own! Ashalle was going to be so angry with her for this, and she would be all alone with no one loving her anymore!

"What are you doing here?" a boyish voice asked, nearly drown out by the sound of her crying. "Th-there w-was an evil anim-animal," she managed between the sobs, tears blinding her eyes.

"You mean the black one?" Nodding, she blinked quickly to clear her eyes and raised her head to look at him. He had ash-blonde, tousled hair and freckles within his pale face. It was a boy of her clan, she had seen often before but rarely talked with, so far.

"It is called cat," he explained. "I have seen it here a few times. The Keeper said that there are sometimes animals of the shemlen strolling around in the forest. It probably ran away from them." He looked down to her and frowned. "Hey, you are bleeding!" The boy searched in his pocket and handed her a slightly dirtied handkerchief. "Take this."

"Ma serannas." She winced as she pressed the cloth on the scratch. Cats were horrible animals, but the boy seemed to be nice. "What is your name?"

"Tamlen. I'm six years old and will be a great hunter one day." He stretched himself and swung the stick in his hands. "I was hunting animals here!"  

Lenya crossed her arms. "You should have hunted the cat then!"

Tamlen nodded. "Next time. We can do it together!" Helping her back on her feet, he frowned at her. "I have seen you a lot, but I don't remember your name."

"I'm Lenya." She sniffled, her tone defiant. "I'm four years old, but I'm already a big girl. Ashalle said that."

"Lenya? That is a nice name..."

She smiled at him. Suddenly, her burning cheek wasn't that bad anymore. "Will you be my friend?"

“Yes,” Tamlen said, and took her hand. "Let's go back to our camp."


End file.
